Nasr makes trouble free debut for Williams

Felipe Nasr completed 87 laps under scorching track temperatures at Bahrain International Circuit on the final day of F1 testing for Williams F1, coinciding with the announcement that the Brazilian driver has been appointed as the team’s reserve and test driver for the 2013 season.

Having honed his race craft through the single seater ranks, piloting F1 car was a a completely untapped experience for Nasr, although one that he acclimated to quickly.

“I am very happy to have driven a Formula 1 car for the first time,” said Nasr after he completed his test programme. “There were so many things going through my head before sitting in the car. It was what I was expecting though: very different to any other car I have ever driven with the amount of downforce, brake efficiency and the power.”

“It was a learning process for me, but I was giving feedback to the engineers all day and I think we found some good things.”

Chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson was impressed with Nasr’s rate of progress in the 2014 car, praising his ability to provide feedback to the engineers during this crucial juncture as the team ramps up for the start of the Australian Grand Prix in less than three weeks’ time.

“He did a very good job for us,” said Nelson of Nasr.” We were keen for him to get some experience of the FW36 under his belt as it’s important that he gets up to speed quickly so he can help us with the development of the car.

“He had a very sensible measured approach so we are happy with what we have seen so far. He gives good feedback, works well with his engineers and is also quick, and so we couldn’t ask for more and are also looking forward to running him at some races this season.”

“Overall, it has been a successful test covering most of our reliability work. We can now start to push on performance all the way up to Melbourne.”

Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were also present during testing, although neither put any test mileage on the FW36 today.

Peter is a freelance journalist and visual editor at Richland F1. His work has been featured in the Australian Formula 3 Series, A1GP and the Champ Car World Series. A contributor to E-Racing Magazine, Peter has appeared on BBC World & AOL's Autoblog Podcast as guest F1 correspondent. He can be found musing about all manner of things motorsport under his nom de plume on Twitter @BaronVonClutch.